[antony]

Quote kristin_akiko

Hi all. I've been teaching for over a year now, but I've recently had some new experiences and with that, some questions. I teach in Japan btw

I teach a beginner class 3 times a week. I guess it's a discussion class since there are no textbooks. Usually I'll teach phrases or expressions, do crosswords, q&a worksheets, or use role plays. Because my boss is kinda greedy, she'll let high level students into the class to make some extra $$$. On any given night I'll have 6-10 students in a class. Obviously when we do role plays I'll split them into groups or partners, but when we do q&a's I don't want to split them. When groups aren't an option, what can I do to keep the high level students from dominating the class?

My second question is kind of tricky. I have a private student who wants to learn to understand accents. He says my American accent is easy to understand, but he has international teleconferences for work every month and he wants to be able to understand them 100%. I've explained to him that it's often hard for me to understand English with an Indian, Chinese, etc. accent and I can't always understand Aussie and English accents. He says he can understand the main point of a speech but wants to understand all the little words in between. His English is very good. What we have been trying is for me to listen to his recorded business meetings and transcribing them on paper or me repeating them with my American accent so that he can shadow them and understand the verbal phrases and ticks that people use. But the process is time consuming and difficult. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can go about this so he's not wasting his time & money?

Whew, thanks!

Hi. Regarding your problem about accents, MACMILLAN Reward teaching books are very good. The book uses mainly British English speakers plus second English language speakers. I used these books when teaching in Thailand and the level of the students listening was quite impressive. The books are written for English teachers who speak English as a first language, the discs are used for listening for information (not for second language teachers to learn how to pronounce the words).

Hope it helps Tony.